Saturday, June 30, 2007

F.: All of the factors that drive persons (and that rob them of their freedom and independence) are linked in one fashion or another to body-mind-personality identification and to the conditioning and programming that resulted in persons identifying with those three. Since the Realized Advaitin understands that de-accumulation could remove much of that which is the blight of the planet, what exactly might persons de-accumulate in order to bring about both independence and sane-like conduct? (A) The first thing to be de-accumulated is identification with a body that is adult in size and age but that is being being controlled unconsciously by a frustrated child within.

(B) Next to go could be the adult’s “mind” that leads the adult to think that it has its own beliefs and opinions when it really has nothing more than an accumulation of “their” beliefs and opinions—“their” being all of those persons who have programmed and conditioned that adult from childhood to the present. (C) Third to be rid of are the personality and the personas which unconsciously and subconsciously determine what adults do and say and think and feel, even as they erroneously believe that they are making conscious choices. Each will be discussed in detail, beginning today with the child within that exerts such a tremendous influence on adult behavior.

(A) First, the effects of childhood trauma in robbing adults of their independence will be addressed. Addicts in recovery can be heard to say, “I’m a teenager in an adult body.” Close, but no cigar. In truth, they are "small children, age six to twelve developmentally, in adult bodies." The planet is inhabited with billions of adults who behave like children, their development having been arrested at the point of a childhood trauma event.

Such events can include the divorce of their parents; the death of a parent; being given away physically to another relative or being abandoned emotionally; injury; being sent from the home and enrolled in school; dealing there with bullies, with abusive teachers trapped in the “Super Teacher” persona, with the stress of performance and testing, and with sex-related issues that arise, all combined with other instances of mental, emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse, ad infinitum.

As much as any other factor, childhood trauma and/or abuse and/or neglect account for much of the childish thinking and behavior of adults. Yesterday, a sixty-five-year-old woman, trapped in her role of “The Daughter,” was shown to be mentally and emotionally—and at times, physically—paralyzed by her mother’s early rejection and by her mother's continued criticism and control.

How truly influential are childhood incidents and/or cases of abuse when they have such an impact that they determine personality and then control the thoughts, beliefs, feelings and actions of adults? How powerful were the effects of that woman's childhood trauma when it still, sixty-five years later, controls how she feels, dominates her thoughts, and still allows her mother to control her from a physical and emotional distance?

How often, you might ask, do children experience trauma? Most parents will deny having done anything that traumatized their children, and most children, even as adults, will deny that their parents ever did anything that traumatized them. It is typical among adults to try to normalize the presence of the elephant that was in their childhood home. The ego, too, must defend and make excuses for the parents' behavior.

Egotism will drive a person to believe that "if I admit that one parent was incompetent, then I'm 'half flawed,' but if both parents were incompetent, then I'm 'totally flawed'." Thus, the ego will drive children, even after having reached the age of an adult, to proclaim one of two things: [1] “Well, my parents did a pretty darn good job” (meaning, “You must admit, after all, that I turned out damn great”); or [2] “Well, they did the best they could” (ignoring the fact that the same could be said of Hitler). So what.

That sixty-five-year-old woman (who is still behaving like a five-year-old that is miserable because mom has never handed out those "atta-girls" that were desired) is typical of many adults who are still acting like children and still allowing parents to dominate them and thereby rob them of freedom and independence. While some admit that they suffered mental and/or emotional abuse at the hands of a parent, many do not want to admit to also having been victims of physical and/or sexual abuse. But all forms of abuse are very common.

Since 1950, over 60,000,000 cases of physical or sexual child abuse have been confirmed in the U.S. alone, and those are the known cases. Today, research shows that 1 in 3 citizens in the States are being abused or have been abused, meaning that more than 100,000,000 people living in the United States today have been abused. The numbers are even higher across much of the planet. Egotism will drive most to remain in denial about having suffered any trauma, so most will never receive treatment; thus, the effects of unresolved childhood trauma now control most of the thoughts, behaviors, and feelings of the planet’s adult-age population and are the roots of all addictive behavior.

And the statistics above do not include those who have hidden incidents of abuse or who have suppressed their memories of abuse events that occurred during childhood. As noted, many of the persons suffering from the trauma of abuse require professional-level treatment, but most will never seek it. One of the basic pointers of the Advaita Teachings is, “The cause of all is…all.” How far back must one go, therefore, to find the cause of present tensions, beliefs, anxieties, anger or rage? All the way.

Adults, driven by a frustrated child within (which they are usually not even aware of) either (a) feel empty and bored and frustrated that their dreams never came true; or (b) are convinced they “have it all” and are reveling in accumulations which will disappear some day; or (c) spend their lives seeking what they were not given during childhood; or (d) are so “full of self” that they have no awareness of the Real Self.

Thus, only a few will ever sense an occasional longing for True Self that is strong enough to drive them to say, “I don’t even know who I am anymore.” If they reach at least that level of consciousness, then they might seek to understand the many misidentifications that drove them to that point; thereafter, they might seek to understand the True Self and That Which Is beyond. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)

Friday, June 29, 2007

F.: Yesterday, it was seen that persons—those driven by personality and by the residue of childhood experiences—have neither freedom nor independence. Consider how debilitating it is to fear that “others” might see you as "bad" or might not "love" you; to fear that your culture’s definition of “success” might not be attained or to fear reality; to need to be seen as “The Expert”; to fear that “others” won’t take care of you;

to fear being deprived when you already have more than is required; to fear a lack of control and power; to be in fear of “loss.” Consider how childish it is for adults to desire being labeled as “good” or “lovable” or to desire mass approval and adulation; to want to be protected and supported and waited on rather than to support yourself. But those are the very fears and desires that are generated by personality and that persons deal with (often unconsciously) every day. Those are the fears and desires that rob persons of their freedom and their independence.

If a person sitting on death row in Huntsville, Texas were to tell you that he is not incarcerated, you would conclude that he was crazy. Consider how insane-like it is for persons to have neither freedom nor independence while imagining and proclaiming that they are free.

Persons, therefore, live in a prison that they call "their mind" while thinking that they live in “their world.” Their consciousness of self drives an existence that is focused on self and that is, therefore, self-centered and self-absorbed with their individual desires and fears. That is imprisonment...not freedom. Those desires and fears are rooted in personality, and personality depends on body and “mind” for sustenance. All persons are bound not just in personality but are bound as well by “mind” and body identification. In that false state of “mind,” ego differentiates and binds. That is imprisonment...not freedom.

Their false identifications are limiting, binding, and restricting, so neither freedom not independence can possibly happen. Because of belief in a false state, persons fail to understand the true state. Post-Realization, belief in differentiation is not even a possibility; being bound is an impossibility; being limited is totally unfeasible. And it is only when not limited that true freedom and real independence happen.

Identifying with the body and its form, persons haven’t a clue regarding their true, formless nature. Persons who find this site or who visit for satsanga are responding to a subconscious longing for that original state without form which is free of all desire and all fear. That subconscious search is generated by the will of the vestiges of pure consciousness to discard all of the phoniness, to know the real, and to be free once more of anxiety-producing fears and the frustration of unmet desires and unfulfilled expectations.

They long to be free of the inner memories of a child, memories that drive them as adults to wish for and hope for and long for truly childish things...things longed for, but not received, during childhood. Post-Realization, the remainder of the manifestation really can be enjoyed in an AS IF fashion without the longings of a child that were not met fifteen or thirty or sixty years ago.

Yes, sixty years ago, as was the case this week with a woman who at the age of sixty-five is still miserable because her mother to this day will not give her that “atta-girl” that she has longed for all her life. Just because that sixty-five-year-old can drive her car to the store or to another city or to another state does not mean that she is free. To the contrary, she is living within the triple-walled confines of (1) her “mind” and (2) the distorted consciousness and (3) the influence of a mother who was, is and shall always be physically, mentally, and emotionally-unavailable (all relatively speaking).

How can happiness in a sixty-five-year-old woman ever manifest when her thoughts, feelings, and actions are being controlled by a mirage called “mother”? How can happiness in a sixty-five-year-old woman ever manifest when her thoughts, feelings, and actions are being controlled by the desires and fears of “The Frustrated Child Within”?

If ever a case existed wherein a sixty-five-year-old person should be invited to declare her independence, it is that case. If ever a case existed wherein a sixty-five-year-old person should be invited to declare her independence from her false identity of “The Bad Daughter,” it is that case. All merely cycles, in this universe and in all universes. To the dismay of persons, misery and suffering can also cycle in the relative existence, from one generation to the next.

The lyrics of an old Mexican song contain these words that could have been spoken as well by “The Judgmental Mother” in the case above:

I don’t know how to love you.I don’t even know how to embrace you,Because what never leaves meIs this pain that hurts me so.

The misery and suffering of one generation of non-Realized becomes the misery and suffering of the next generation of non-Realized. From as many persons as the daughter might seek advice, she could accumulate just that many pieces of advice about what she needs to do. The non-duality teachings, on the other hand, will explain that she need do nothing other than realize; namely, realize that (1) “daughter” and “good” and “bad” are the stuff of relativity; that (2) all relative "stuff" is illusory; and that (3) if she can see beyond that which is relative and illusory, she might glimpse That Which Is Real. Then, she’ll be able to be free of the binding and limiting “mind” that was generated in large part by a mother operating under the auspices of warped consciousness.

Freed of the effects of the warped consciousness of "her mother," she could realize that she can survive even if the fictitious role of “The Daughter” does not. Then, she could declare her independence from "The Judgmental Mother" and finally be free. [NOTE: Many persons suffer severely from the trauma of abuse and neglect. They might require professional counseling as part of a holistic treatment plan. Some have suppressed recall of the abuse incidents and don’t even know the source of the rage that surfaces on occasion or the nagging unrest that is ever-present.]

For those like the woman trapped in the role of “The Bad Daughter,” however, Realization can help break the chain of pain that is cycled among the non-Realized as they paint their relative existence with the broad strokes of their nonsense. What about you? What are you being moved to declare your independence from? What attachment to illusions, dogma, beliefs, ideas, persons, things, places, or possessions are you being moved to declare your independence from? Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS Daily Meditation Guide II (The guides are self-contained and can be read in either order. Each provides six months of readings and considerations. 15% off the price of the set through July 1st.)

Thursday, June 28, 2007

F.: Most will engage in some sort of celebration next week in the U.S. in regards to “independence,” but true freedom and total independence actually have little appeal among persons. Dependent types and co-dependent types do not find independence to be appealing at all. In fact, they really hate independence. “The Religious One” and “The Spiritual Giant” both love their dependency on one or more gods, and they want you to join them in their dependency. They expend huge quantities of energy in urging you on, just as a drug addict will encourage a friend by saying, "Here, try this. You'll like it. It'll make you feel great."

Also, “The Helper” and “The Savior” and “The Performer” and “The Loyalist” and “The Boss” do not want to be free of their false identity. Typically, “The Spouse” and “The Owner” (who owns all sorts of “stuff”) have no propensity for true freedom at all. The closest they come to knowing the unicity is when they think that they are at one with another body or another thing. And so it is with all who are identifying with that which is false while believing that their roles and identities are real.

Some will declare that they are free (and will actually believe that is the case) without having the slightest clue that they are imprisoned every waking second of every day. Because they do not know Who/What They Truly Are, they accept that they are what others tell them that they are. In regards to what they are and who they are, they accept hearsay as fact. In regards to what they believe, they accept hearsay as fact. In regards to what they think they need, they accept hearsay as fact.

As children, what did they desire more than anything and fear as much as anything? They desired the “good girl” or good boy” label from their parents and feared the "bad" label, but in many cases, far more frequently they were corrected or punished than labeled "good." In school, they wanted the “good student” label and feared the “bad student” classification. As adults, many are still imprisoned in a trap that was sprung during their childhood and are now driven by the hidden agenda of that child, still doing all that they can in order to accumulate strokes, reassurance, love, praise, and reinforcement of their false identities. Their perceived "needs" are great.

The bars of the prison in which they are trapped are the desires and the fears that are rooted in personality. Note that most on the planet are driven by one greatest fear and one greatest desire, both of which are rooted in a personality that was formed as a child to contend with dysfunctionalism (which their egotism drives them to deny even existed in their family of origin). Thus, the following, as discussed in detail in the book LIBERATION, mark the relative existence of the non-Realized who are trapped in the fears and desires of one (or more) of the nine personality types:

Ones fear being seen as “bad” and desire to be seen as “good”Twos fear not being loved and desire to be loved by allThrees fear failure and desire the appearance of being worthy and considered valuable by the massesFours fear having no identity and desire to “find themselves”Fives fear being overwhelmed by reality and desire the appearance of being competent and knowledgeableSixes fear a lack of support and desire to be protectedSevens fear being deprived and desire excitement and freedomEights fear being violated or used and thus desire to control people, places, and thingsNines fear “loss” and desire to be taken care of since they believe they are “entitled”

Who that is driven by such fears and desires could possibly claim that they are “free”? The answer: the non-Realized. Their failure to recognize entrapment and to see how delusional it is to believe that they are really free is tantamount to a person in the passenger seat, the back seat, or the trunk of a car claiming that he/she is driving and is in charge and is determining where the car goes and how the car goes. People who are powerless to make choices and who are being controlled and driven by other forces are neither free nor independent.

How free are you? How independent are you? That is, how free of the influence of personas and personality are you? Have you recognized the degree to which you have been robbed of freedom and imprisoned in ideas and concepts and dogma and values that were dreamed up, and passed down, by ignorant persons? Persons who have not seen that they are trapped cannot take the necessary steps to be free and to declare their independence, once and for all. Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS Daily Meditation Guide II (The guides are self-contained and can be read in either order. Each provides six months of readings and considerations. 15% off the price of the set through July 1st.)

[First, a note to “Ana” who wrote that she “hates this life and wants to die.” You did not provide a full e-mail address, so a response will be posted here. If the e-mail is legitimate and if you are willing to discuss your comments in more detail, please send contact information. A private response will be provided.]

From a site visitor:I have tested as a type four personality with a strong helper component. I bought your bookLIBERATIONto understand myself even better, but instead you attacked me and those like me who choose to try to help people and make the world a better place. What is your problem with people helping people? What do you think is wrong with helping?

F.: Since you are defending the role of “The Helper” which you have disintegrated into, it is appropriate to discuss the dependency and co-dependency that always result from assuming roles. Of course, all persona-assumption generates co-dependency: “The Husband” cannot exist without “The Wife”; “The Helper” cannot exist without “The Needy” or “The Infirmed”; “The Giver” cannot exist without “The Taker.” Research by Anne Wilson Schaef and Dr. Edward L. Zuckerman reveal some of the other roles that persons assume and that generate co-dependency and dependency:

“The Rescuer” (who often covers up for and enables); “The Caretaker” (who minimizes relative existence consequences and who supports dependency in others); “The Joiner” (who enables dependent types to rationalize and perpetuate their dependency); “The Hero” (who plays the part of protecting family or individual images and who “sacrifices”); “The Adjuster” (who avoids identifying and addressing problems and hides the truth); “The Family Man” or “The Family Woman” (who values loyalty over truth, who can encourage avoidance of feelings, who supports distortion and denial, and who encourages the superficial).

The researchers also offer some of the typical characteristics of co-dependents (which make a relative-existence case for Full Realization which can end both dependency and co-dependency):

Co-dependents lack boundaries, believe they cannot survive without a particular person, are plagued by fears (especially a fear of abandonment), and have the distorted view that relative existence relationships can be “perfect.” They often become egotistical, thinking they are indispensable, and they often adopt an additional persona called “The Martyr.” Though they seemingly reach outward to “help,” they really become self-centered, personalizing all events, assuming responsibility for the behavior of other persons, and working to attain love (which they sense they have never received to the degree desired).

They eventually attempt to control everything and everyone and believe that with more effort they can “fix” individuals or families. Though often emotionally-intoxicated, they become unaware of feelings and become dishonest as they try to manage images and distort truth.

They can "try to change" in order to please others, can feel responsible for meeting other people's needs at the expense of their own, and can become driven by compulsions. Eventually they develop anxiety and are prone to become enmeshed in relationships with those exhibiting personality disorders and/or dependencies and/or impulsive conduct.

Several of the following will usually manifest in dependent and/or co-dependent types: depression; hypervigilance; compulsions; anxiety; substance abuse; recurring instances of abuse at the hands of others; stress-related medical illnesses; and a propensity to remain in a primary relationship with an active user or abuser. They can become unassertive and submissive (though exploding into rage on occasion); they can become over-sensitive to others' difficulties; and they are very adept at “putting up a front.”

Note, also, that the assumption of personality never happens in a "one persona" fashion. Once “The Husband” is assumed, “The Parent,” “The Provider,” “The Protector,” “The Homeowner,” “The Finance Man” or any number of other roles are also assumed. That feature of role-assumption guarantees that the Multiple Personality Disorder will always manifest among the non-Realized, along with the detachment from reality that role-playing guarantees.

So, to revisit your question, “What do you think is wrong with helping?” you should see that the pointers here do not discourage any happenings from happening: husbanding can happen, teaching can happen, helping can happen, etc. Among the Realized, those happenings can also not happen, and neither misery nor suffering nor emotional intoxication accompany those occasions. The point is, those happenings can happen without accepting a false identity as a true identity.

The relative existence problems that arise for persons (for the non-Realized) have nothing to do with whether helping (or anything else) happens or not. They have to do with the traits and behaviors described above that are generated by the assumption of roles and by the dependencies and the co-dependencies that always follow. Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS Daily Meditation Guide II (The guides are self-contained and can be read in either order. Each provides six months of readings and considerations. 15% off the price of the set through July 1st.)

From a site visitor:I have tested as a type four personality with a strong helper component. I bought your book LIBERATION to understand myself even better, but instead you attacked me and those like me who choose to try to help people and make the world a better place. What is your problem with people helping people? What do you think is wrong with helping?

F.: During satsanga, it is often asked after offering a pointer, “Now, what did you hear?” That component was added after years of hearing at the end of sessions, “I really agreed with you when you said…,” followed by something that was not said at all. Clarification is often required, and never any more than in your case, seemingly. So the concise version is this:

1. If you are a type four, there is no “strong helper component.” There is, instead, an indication that you have disintegrated from anything that persons might call “the assets of a Four” into what persons might call “the liabilities of a Two.” For a Four to behave as a Two shows evidence of the presence of that which causes disintegration: either high stress or high piety accompanied by spiritual arrogance. Research shows that one or both of those always precede disintegration of the psyche.

2. It is not “yourself” that you need to “understand better.” The invitation is to see that you are not yourself—that you are not what you take yourself to be—and then to find That Which You Truly Are. The synopsis of the book LIBERATION should have made clear that the intent of the work is less to help you understand personality and more to free you of the effects of personality.

3. How many personalities do you think are beneficial? To abide as even one persona is troublesome enough—relatively speaking—but to be trapped in multiple personalities is far more troublesome...relatively speaking.

4. The fact that "you" believe that there is a "you" who was attacked and that there is a “me” doing the attacking shows that you have much more to understand in regards to the Advaita Teachings.

5. You are not “choosing” to do anything when you are driven to behave as a type you are not (in this case, a type two helper).

6. There is no world, so there certainly is not any possibility of your making it better. Organized religions with a history of trillions of members and trillions of trillions of dollars have claimed that to be their goal, but after thousands of years in which to accomplish their goal, they haven’t changed anything for "the better." But your ego is telling you that the world is real, that it is "bad," and that you are going to play a key role in making it "good." So it is, when the warping of the consciousness results in belief in such dualities.

7. The “problem with helping people” is your belief that you know what people need and can provide it. An educated man who was living on the streets of Houston explained that his drug use deprived him of the motivation to find employment, to work, to earn a way to pay for his shelter and food, and to become independent—not just from drugs but from his Dependent Personality Disorder that drove him to depend on others to meet his needs. He spoke of the thousands of dollars collected during his years on the street, money that was given by "well-meaning" persons who thought they were helping him by dropping money into his cup. He explained that what they thought was their “helping” was really their “harming” since it allowed him to continue to avoid employment and to continue his drug use.

The intent is not to open a discussion of societal ills but to offer one specific example where persons who had adopted the role of “helper” did not have a clue about what that particular individual “needed” to shift him beyond his drug dependency and his dependency on “helpers.”

8. As for "What do you think is wrong with helping?" Nothing. If so-called “helping” happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t. The "problem," relatively speaking, is when persons are trapped in personality, when they disintegrate into another personality type, when they reinforce dependency, when they reinforce co-dependency, when they reinforce Multiple Personality Disorder, when they encourage the assumption of—and belief in—false identifies, and when they encourage persons to detach from reality.

As an example, many among the current generation of dependent and co-dependent young adults now live with mom and/or dad. Those parents believe that they are “helping” their children by encouraging something so unnatural. It has been pointed out that if one is truly Realized, he lives in the style of the deer in many ways. The doe feeds the fawn for a short time. The buck is there to protect, if need be. Soon, however, the fawn must meet its own needs for food and shelter. That is natural, and nisarga yoga is the method that guides persons beyond body-mind-personality identification, beyond dependency and co-dependency, and to a means of living a natural, AS IF existence.

Grown deer does not depend on a “mother” or “father” to provide food. They find their own food or they starve. They do not wait for a “father” or “mother” to find shelter or to build a bed of straw for sleep. The Realized live in a natural fashion in all ways. To live in a supernatural fashion (as “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual Giant”) is most unnatural. Similarly, it is unnatural to live with any dependency or to assume any identity or to seek out helpers who are willing to care for an adult as if he/she were a child. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS THE DAILY MEDITATION GUIDE II (The two guides are self-contained and can be read in either order. Each provides six months of readings and considerations. 15% off the price of Meditation Guide II through July 1st.)

Monday, June 25, 2007

#168:“That heron standing near the water’s edge has no strings attached. It goes where it pleases; it goes when it pleases; it goes how it pleases; or it does not go at all, and that pleases it too. For now, in this manifestation, he is perfect peace, seemingly with form and shape; consciousness, seemingly with form and shape; energy, seemingly with form and shape. So Am I. So Are You. Ultimately, he is That--That Which Was, Is, and Shall Be. No duality.” [Excerpt, p. 252 from The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders]

CONSIDERATION: “Free as a bird,” the expression goes. How do you go? Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS Daily Meditation Guide II (The non-duality guides are self-contained, so they can be read in any order. 15% off the price of the set through July 1st)

Synopsis of LIBERATION: This book helps remove the next barrier to Realization: personality. After being freed from body-mind identification, transitioning into the next step begins the process of being freed from identification with personas and being unconsciously controlled by personality traits. This book studies the nine most basic persona types as identified in the enneagram method and offers the way to be freed of the influences of personality.WORKING ON BEING FREE OF PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION?

CONSIDERATION: Are you experiencing the difference in the “I am this” or the “I am that” as opposed to simply living in the “I Am”? Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS THE MEDITATION SET: Daily Meditation Guides, Volumes One and Two (15% off the price of the set through June 24th.)

SEEKING LIBERATION FROM PERSONALITY IDENTIFICATION?Synopsis ofLIBERATION: This book helps remove the next barrier to Realization: personality. After being freed from body-mind identification, transitioning into the next step begins the process of being freed from identification with personas ("I am this or that") and being unconsciously controlled by personality traits. This book studies the nine most basic persona types as identified in the enneagram method and offers the way to be freed of the influences of personality.

Saturday, June 23, 2007

F.: [An e-mail was received this morning from a man who really believes in death and who really believes that he can die. How arduous a task, to try to negotiate the relative existence with beliefs such as those! The posting selected for today is apropos, as are the pointers about "death" in one of the featured books following this post.]

#86: [Regarding "death"] “Chief Two Hawks continued to guide Kirk through the labyrinth of faulty concepts that comprised the protégé’s mind, saying, ‘The breath combines with the universal air, and the body elements combine with their fellow elements, dust to dust. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, so [at the moment that people call "death"] it merely combines with the field of consciousness as the elements combine with the field of elements and the air combines with the field of air. Do you not see, therefore, that there is no beginning, no middle, nor any ending but that there is only a continuum of cyclings?” [Excerpt, p. 191 from The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders]

CONSIDERATION: For thousand and thousands of years, humanity was in touch with the cycles. It is known that body cycles can be measured via biorhythmic tracking. It is known that on a larger scale, lives have four-year cycles that run very much like spring, summer, fall and winter. It is known that more 'life crises' come during the period when year three of a cycle ends and one enters into the fourth year of a cycle. (Divorce rates are higher in marriage year 7 to 8, for example, or in the 19th to 20th year of the marriage.) Only when men of religion decided that timelines--not cycles--apply did mankind begin to talk of linear explanations for existence that spoke of ‘birth-life-death-judgment-heaven-hell.’ Being out of touch with the cycles created a demand to ‘always be perfect’ and 'always be active' and 'always work, work, work’ without any cycles for rest. Are you in touch with the natural cycles and rhythms and thus flowing along though life, or are you being driven by a philosophy based in timelines that are driving you to work at life and to work at salvation [and to be miserable as a result of fears]?

F.: How unnatural is it for very intelligent humans to allow the way that they feel at this moment to be determined by myths and lies and misunderstandings that were dreamed up thousands of years ago by very ignorant humans? Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS THE MEDITATION SET: Daily Meditation Guides, Volumes One and Two (15% off the price of the set through tomorrow.)

Synopsis of WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I DIE? This book offers the opportunity to shift to the next level of understanding, the level at which you come to realize that you cannot die since you were not born. Fears generally begin to fall away after reading this work. The Foreword offers this: “If you find the answer to ‘What happens when I die—what happens after the body ends?’ the result will be that the remainder of your relative existence will be marked by an incredible lightness of being. Persons addicted to chaos and beliefs will hate that possibility. Those seeking to be restored to sanity will seek the answer until it is found.”WORKING ON BEING FREE OF BODY AND MIND IDENTIFICATION?

Friday, June 22, 2007

“But back to the common element that is All. Modern physicists at first called that smallest building block ‘strings’ until some decided that an even more basic element exists which they call a ‘sparticle.’ Names notwithstanding, there is only one single ingredient to what we call ‘everything’ or ‘the diversity’ or ‘the entire universe.’ I call it ‘That,’ That which is the one and only whatever that is Real, typically Unmanifest, occasionally manifested, or not. ‘Everything’ is really one thing. The term ‘unicity’ is accurate. ” [Excerpt, from The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders, p. 191]

CONSIDERATION: The scientist invites you to look around this planet for things that are supposedly very different and then realize that everything began as a single atom. Everything can be traced back to one common element. Could there be a beneficial impact (relatively speaking) on your life if you sensed the unity of All? Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE ISTHE MEDITATION SET: Daily Meditation Guides, Volumes One and Two (15% off the price of the set through June 24th.)

Thursday, June 21, 2007

From a site visitor:You’ve been talking about mistaking one thing for another. What about thinking that the things humans use to TRY to escape really end up trapping us? I used booze and drugs for years to try to escape the misery of myslef and my marriage and my job, but in the end, the booze and drugs became a bigger trap than what I was trying to escape from. I think Advaita Vedanta might finally be the answer for me. Eddie

F.: Hello, Eddie. Thx for your e-mail. First, if saying you “used for years” implies that you are no longer using, so it is; however, if you are still using, then know that the Advaita philosophy is not intended to be the first step in the treatment of the Addictive Personality Disorder. Typically, treatment requires a holistic approach, and there is no one place or one person or one group that has a monopoly on treating the complex disorder.

Next, there is some truth to your point that the driving force behind addictive behavior can involve a desire to escape, but the root of addictive behavior is as much about a desire to be fully engaged. That is, the goal is as much about being driven to “capture” the NOW and to stay in the NOW as it is to escape the illusions that are "the not NOW." In that regard, substance abuse might provide a temporary relief, but Realization guarantees it for the remainder of the manifestation.

Ultimately, all misery is rooted in either a fear or a desire, and all fears and desires are rooted in the illusory “past” or the illusory “future.” What does it look like as one attempts to escape the fears of the past or the desires of the future? Here’s one example: suppose a person had an argument with the boss on a Friday, a conflict that could cause the termination of employment (and the supposed end of “The Employee”)? Suppose the employee was told to be in the boss’s office again on Monday morning to finalize the conflict. Here’s the way in which substance abuse might allow a temporary sense of escape from the fear of unemployment and the desire to continue employment, but more significantly, how it can fix one in the NOW.

(By the way: "power" is an ego-based concept. When Realization truly happens, all talk about "gaining power" or about "the power of now" ends. There is no "one" to gain or lose anything, including "power," which is just another thing the ego either desires or is in fear of not having.)

To continue with "The Employee," suppose that on the Saturday night after the argument, that employee goes to a party and begins to drink. Early on, he might discuss the fight and his fears and desires around his employment. After a few drinks, he might begin to relax and to engage in conversation about other topics. After a few more drinks, he might begin dancing and, for a while, completely forget the fight. Soon, as a result of being totally under the influence of the alcohol, “The Employee” is not thinking about the fight on Friday nor the meeting on Monday that might end with his being fired.

At that instant, the effect of the booze has allowed the person to forget the ego-state of “The Employee” and to become fixed in the present moment…fixed in the Amness alone. He feels free and happy for “the time being,” namely, the “time” being...NOW. Free of the fearful memory of the illusory “time” called “the past” and the potentially-threatening fight that occurred then, he feels free…period. Freed of thoughts about the desires for the illusory “time” called “the future” (specifically, the desire to remain employed) he feels free…period.

What he is experiencing is the only instant in which one can be free of desires and fears and feel free, namely, NOW. Yet on the Sunday morning after the party, the effects of the fears and desires return as the person is again conscious of “The Employee” that feels threatened; hence, the earlier pointer that substance abuse only provides a temporary escape (or a temporary “capturing” of the NOW). As long as ego-states are taken to be actual identities, then fears and desires will arise, they will generate discomfort or restlessness or misery, and they will trap persons in the illusions of "past" and "future."

Consider another example to understand “the capturing” of the Now as well “the escape” aspect that you mentioned. Suppose a food addict is in a busy restaurant with friends on a Saturday night. The longer the waiter takes, the more the food addict’s desires will be experienced and will cause discomfort and irritablity and misery. The longer the addict’s unmet desires linger, the more misery will begin to manifest.

Anger can soon follow. Even after the orders have been placed, tension can mount as the preparation and serving of the food is delayed due to the volume of orders. Talking can continue, but from the frustrated addict, mostly complaining is heard as the addict’s misery is expressed. The tension can increase until that moment when the food arrives, but what a shift for the food addict happens at that moment.

You have likely seen this same scenario play out: the food is placed before the addict, and the addict suddenly becomes very quiet. Peace manifests, at least temporarily. The head of the addict is bowed worshipfully over the plate as the food is transferred quickly into the mouth. The guttural sounds that accompany the consumption are not unlike those that might occur during a sexual encounter as the addict is brought to the moment and delights in the taste of food.

The anger that was being experienced in the past is gone; that desire for food to be served in the near future has passed, once the meal arrives. The addict is brought “to the moment” and is fully present while absorbed in the task of eating. All is right with the world, so it seems. Yet again, the silence is temporary and the release is temporary for those who “eat for comfort.”

As a third example, consider the sex act that was just referenced above. All sorts of problems and miseries might have been faced throughout a day, but that night, at that moment when the act of sex culminates in a phyiscal crescendo, what is anyone thinking about? Nothing. What thoughts about things past are occurring? None. What concerns about the future exists? None. Why? Because at that instant, there are no thoughts, no identity, no troubling fears, and no unmet desires. There is only The Void of being fully present to the moment.

At that instant, the one experiencing that crescendo is fully—though only temporarily—in the moment. The person at that moment is conscious of zero concepts, zero ideas, zero thoughts, and zero beliefs. There is only the beingness, the Amness. There is nothing to discuss or ponder or debate or consider. The silence might follow. Perfect peace and contentment can happen as all identities are "lost" while in that state of Is-ness only. Perfect non-attachment to anything dealing with the relative existence might manifest. But again, that is temporary.

The fact is that, what one is seeking through abuse of substances or though the practicing of any other addictions (including to sex, to shopping, to power, to nicotine, to religion, to money, to work, to applause, to food, to spiritual disciplines, to control, to hearing oneself speak or sing, to alcohol, to fame, to memberships, to cocaine, to being seen by crowds, to love, ad infinitum), is that which only Realization can provide consistently. As shown, the abuse can bring one to the moment temporarily, but only Realization can allow one to fixate there in Full Awareness and perfect freedom and peace.

Note exactly what is most appealing in each of those three examples when full presence to the moment happens: there is an absence of fears, desires, ideas, concepts, persona-consciousness, worry, and concerns. There is a lack of consciousness of all of those things that personas are typically conscious of. The perfect peace of that moment when the “addictive high” reaches its peak is even beyond consciousness—as is the perfect peace of abidance as the Absolute. Too, during that full presence in the moment, there is that bliss that comes with the Void—with the Nothingness—as the peace of zero concepts, zero ideas, zero thoughts, and zero beliefs happens.

There is the bliss of non-attachment and the experience of being “at-one.” The difference in the “addictive high” and True Realization is that the former is temporary and unstable but that which happens post-Realization is permanently fixed. (Some have written to this site claiming that it was during a drug-induced addictive high that they Realized. That is self-deception, the ego once again engaged in making false claims, as it always does. Realization follows the repurification of the consciousness and does not manifest during any state of corrupted consciousness.)

The pointer is that, via Realization, the temporary, short-term “fix” of trying to recapture an addictive high again and again can be replaced with the permanent “fix” of abiding as The Absolute in the present moment—in the NOW—and not being diverted from it by fears and desires that are rooted in “the past” or “the future.” While not the first step in treating the Addictive Personality Disorder, Full Realization may be the last.

Then, post-Realization, the remainder of the manifestation can happen in an AS IF fashion of living rather than being trapped within a “seeking mode” such as when persons seek escape or seek to capture a feeling or seek an addictive high or seek relief or seek to be fully present to the moment. Realized, abidance just happens, and it happens without any attachment to fears, to desires, or to illusions about “the past” or “the future.” Please enter the silence of contemplation.THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS THE MEDITATION SET: Daily Meditation Guides, Volumes One and Two (15% off the price of the set through June 24th.)

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: Before Ivan Pavlov conditioned the dogs in his experiment, they behaved naturally. They salivated at the smell of meat. After he conditioned them, they behaved unnaturally, salivating at the sound of a bell. Conditioning robbed them of the chance to live naturally and trapped them into living in a most unnatural manner. The same applies to conditioned humans: they will live unnaturally and supernaturtally but never naturally unless they are de-programmed and de-conditioned and then Realize Fully.

For thousands of years and continuing to the present, humans have been conditioned as if they were dogs in a Pavlovian experiment, and the most widespread conditioning (with the most far-reaching effects on the relative existence) involves religion and spirituality. Today, they both use the tried and proven methods of conditioning that are rooted in ancient cults and that are now used by modern cults that are considered to be legitimate organizations and religions and programs and movements.

While religion and/or spirituality are one step on the “path” to Realization, neither can move a person even to the midpoint of the complete “journey” to Full Realization. Moreover, like Pavlov’s dogs, humans subjected to religious and/or spiritual conditioning are prevented from living naturally and are trapped into living in a most unnatural manner.

It has been shown that the Advaita Teachings provide a means by which you can be free of all of the unconscious factors that currently control you and that actually disempower you (relatively speaking) by robbing you of free-will and choice, even as you think that your beliefs and practices are giving you “power.” It truly is possible to wake up and to stop living on autopilot when the autopilot setting does not allow you to have any input into where you’ll go, what you’ll do, and how the trip shall take place along the way.

So, John, you have written to this site to promote with pride some teachings that are thousands of years old, but the Realized Advaitins here speak of That Which Is eternal. You think that you have been born again while the consciousness that speaks here was never born but was present for the formation of this universe and all universes. You believe that something so limited as your religious persona could impress That Which Is without limit.

You are inviting That Which Is totally free to become totally dependent, as you are. You believe that That Which Is—and Which Is permanent and unchangeable—can be altered by your relative urgings. You are looking without for That Which can only be accessed from within. You want the re-purified consciousness that is aware of the non-dual Truth of the Eternal Self to recognize the dualistic fiction of “the way to your God”—a concept that was only invented a few thousand years ago. You would urge a mirage to find the way to another mirage.

You want to talk of relative, fictional “power” on a site where Realized Advaitins know that They Are the pure and real energy that is the Absolute. You want persons to join you as you continue to work at becoming something, but you offer your invitation on a site where becoming has no applicability because the re-purified consciousness knows that It Was, Is, and shall Forever Be. You can become nothing, but you can appear to become the religious/spiritual role that you are playing.

You want to invite That Which Is at perfect peace and Which Is completely free to follow your path to peace and freedom, yet your path has been shown, historically, to destroy the peace and to encourage dependence. Moreover, if you have truly found “the way,” what were you looking for when you found this site? More ways? More answers? More prospects? What?

Once more, the pointer is offered: the Advaita Teachings provide a method by which you can understand how you have been unconsciously driven by misinformation and by deceptions that were dreamed up thousands of years ago. It provides a means by which you can be awakened, by which you can be enlightened, and by which you can be freed from the effects of all things that currently influence you and that unconsciously drive you.

During the Vedic Period, there was a formalization of the Vedānta philosophy (see Uttara Mimamsa for more) that offered an invitation to engage in “the higher inquiry.” That investigation can also include an inquiry into the Original Understanding of advaita, of “not two.” You speak of separates, John. You speak of a “you” that is “here” and a “god” that is “there.” You talk of things that deal with only the third step of the seven steps to De-Programming, De-Personalization, Full Realization, Full Awakening, Total Actualization, Full Enlightenment. Consider the “higher inquiry” until Realization happens, until all inquiry ends, and until AS IF, natural living happens.

What might that “higher inquiry” reveal that is far beyond your current persona? If you seek truth and seek that which is real, then you most certainly must inquire beyond a false persona such as “The Religious One” or “The Spiritual Man.” The truth cannot be found via a lie, and all of the roles that you are playing are nothing more than lies…just false identities.

The factual pointer is this: if you do not free yourself from dogmatic beliefs and from every other concept and belief and idea and ego-state, then you will know no freedom and you never sustain any consistent sense of peace during the remainder of the manifestation. Your religion will continue to be available should you refuse to question what you have been told and should you be driven to continue to remain among the dependent and co-dependent persons who are not Realized.

Realization, however, is also available if you become willing to question and to follow directions from a Realized teacher. The indisputable effectiveness of the methods of conditioning used by religious persons, however, will likely drive you to remain attached to the ancient, pagan lies that you take to be your current religious truths. So it is. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS THE MEDITATION SET: Daily Meditation Guides, Volumes One and Two (15% off the price of the set through June 24th.)

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: It is suspected, John, that the “cutting the roast in half” example from yesterday was not especially relevant to you; therefore, a second example with be provided to show that, while you think you’re making conscious choices around your religious practices, you really don’t have a clue about what you’re doing or why you’re doing it. Your “Lord’s Supper” or “Holy Communion Service” will serve as an example.

While you probably believe that the roots of that ceremony go back to one particular meal 2000 years ago, the origin really goes back much farther. And while you believe that ceremony goes back to one special meal on the night before a crucifixion, the body-blood ceremony was a common ritual being practiced for thousands of years before Christ, was being practiced by many in Christ’s day, and was being practiced by many others in various cultures.

And while you likely believe that the ceremony involved the symbolic consumption of body and blood, it really involved the literal consumption of body and blood throughout most of its history. Here’s the true origin of one of the key elements of your “worship service” which is discussed in greater detail in SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY (Recovering What Religions Lost):

The first communion centered on a woman—not on a male savior. A group of starving people faced death—their crops needed rain. They needed “saving.” A self-appointed medicine man/priest, claiming that he had been spoken to directly by an angry God who was withholding rain, reported to the crowd that the male god could be appeased if only he could have a virgin.

So the priest, being the self-appointed rep of god on earth, would be the one to have her. He called for volunteers, but no females stepped forward. Several fathers did step forward, however, more than willing to make a sacrifice to god for the good of all, and especially their own good since the priest asked neither for a son-warrior nor for a son-worker, but only for one of the many daughters, considered culture-wide to be of far lesser value than males.

Therefore it came to pass that many girls found themselves being pushed forward by their fathers. The priest chose one, then took her into the temple and had his way with her, brought her sobbing body out front, placed it on a make-shift stone altar, and cut from her the beating heart within.

He then ate the body and drank the blood and then passed her heart among the crowd, inviting all to do the same. For centuries after that, worship services had three elements used by people trying to feel “At One” with god and neighbors: sexual acts, vampirism, and cannibalism. Eventually, most religions evolved into talking about being at one with god and neighbors. Now, some drink pretend-blood and eat pretend-body during their communion services. Other Christians believe that, after the priest performs his act of transubstantiation, they are drinking real blood and eating real body, just as the ancients did in their original ceremony.

So there you are, John. Those are the roots of the “Communion Service” or “Lord’s Supper” that you still re-enact to this day. Review what happened then to understand what you are actually doing today: a man who chose to “enter into the ministry” informed people that…

1. there is a god in another world that is controlling things in this world, right down to when and where it rains…or not;

2. the priest told his followers that god could get angry at times (revealing that god cannot control his emotions and that he is co-dependent since the way he feels depends on others, on humans);

3. the priest also told the people that god wants sacrifices made to him, that he wants to be worshipped, and that he wants women—and eventually all persons—to dedicate themselves to him, including “body and heart and mind and soul.” (That description would likely fit any woman’s idea of the “nightmare husband from hell,” but it is the very concept of the god that is worshipped by six billion people on the planet today);

4. then the self-appointed priest told people that god wanted someone killed, and that he wanted people to have a worship service, and during that service he wanted people to eat the body and to drink the blood of the person killed.

Remember the words of Maharaj in this regard:

First of all you identify something as being good or bad for yourself. Then, in an effort to acquire good or to get rid of the bad, you have invented a God. Then you worship such a God and ... you pray to that God for something good to happen to you.

And, John, the masses back then unquestioningly believed every word of the fiction that was dreamed up by their religious/spiritual leader, just as you're doing today. More significantly, note that the worshippers did not have faith in god at all. Instead, just as today, they had faith in a priest who dreamed up some lethal nonsense and shared it with a very gullible audience. And most today are just as gullible, just as misguided, and just as deluded and self-deluding as that audience thousands of years ago. Why? Because even today, religious and spiritual persons profess to have “faith in god” but really have faith in the humans who claim that they're sharing religious and spiritual knowledge with people.

When a leader says he “talked to God and God told him to bomb another nation” and 50% of the population believes that, they are not showing faith in god but are showing faith in that man. When an imam says that he talked to god and god wants his followers to blow up themselves and others and they believe him, those followers are not showing faith in god but are showing faith in that man. And when a rabbi says that god flooded the entire planet and killed every human, save the members of one family, they are not showing faith in that killer god but in the man who repeated that ancient pagan tale in what they take to be a “holy text.”

And now thousands of years later, John, you are engaging in the same bloody “sacrament,” thinking that you’re participating in a ceremony that is making you “closer to God” while actually re-enacting a brutal, sadistic ritual that was dreamed up by a sociopath/priest and that was blindly participated in by unquestioning persons of “faith” who were led to believe that there was a god who wants people to “make a sacrifice” (or, later, “give a tithe”).

And amazingly, John, when you were likely told as a child at church to “be quiet and drink your blood and eat that body,” the insanity of that instruction did not shock either you or your parents who were guiding you through that process. Such is the blindness—and numbness—that results from programming and conditioning, and such is the reason that the members of the three religions of Abraham are fixated with blood:

the Jews tell their tales of the blood of the lamb and the blood smeared over the doors during Passover and the Nile turning into a river of blood; the Christians display Christ bleeding from the head, from the side, from the feet and from the hands and claim they are drinking his blood regularly; and Muslim men beat themselves with chains and spikes in order to bleed on their “holy” days. Is it any wonder that members of those three groups are responsible for more blood-letting nowadays than any other source? Blood is at the very core of the religious programming that influences them more than any other beliefs they have.

Again, religion can serve as a step along the path to Realization, but if that stage is not transitioned, it will trap persons in systems of beliefs that can drive them to re-enact homicidal rituals that included elements of cannibalism and vampirism; it can inspire the invasion of lands and can lead to the decimation of 150,000,000 indigenous peoples in a “Manifest Destiny”-driven effort to establish “a Christian nation that will serve and honor God”; it can inspire persons to strap on bomb vests and blow up others who have different religious or sectarian beliefs; and it can inspire a leader to claim that he heard a voice telling him to drop bombs on another nation.

So it must now be asked, John: you wrote that if persons find the way to that god of yours, then they can have “peace in this life and joy forever.” The evidence to the contrary is extensive. What fact-based evidence can you present about religion leading to peace? On the “journey,” religious and spiritual knowledge was sought and attained but brought no peace or joy. Peace and joy came when the Advaita Teachings led to freedom from accumulating religious and spiritual knowledge (also know as, “learned ignorance”) and when de-accumulating in all ways took place, including the discarding of religious personas and spiritual personas and finally being free of all false, assumed roles. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS THE MEDITATION SET: Daily Meditation Guides, Volumes One and Two (15% off the price of the set through June 24th.)

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: The delusions which persons (the non-Realized) live in—and which are addressed by the Advaita Teachings—are fixed in the “minds” of persons and are one dominant influence on their relative behavior and thought. The effects of those delusions are so dominant that persons are walking about in their sleep, talking in their sleep, and doing what they do in their sleep while actually believing that they are fully awake and while actually believing that they are controlling their thoughts and making their own decisions and choosing to do what they do.

Could it possibly be more insane-like than for persons to be driven by unconscious and subconscious factors while being convinced that they are awake and aware and conscious and exercising free-will and choice? Could the level of self-deception be any greater than for persons to be driven to say what they say and to do what they do without a clue about why they are doing it or why they are saying it? Consider this example:

A child watched her mother and grandmother in the kitchen as they cut a roast in half and put it into two small pans for cooking. When the child asked her mother why they didn’t just put the roast in their big pan, her mother said, “Because this is the way that your grandmother always did it. Maybe it involves flavor or cook time or something, is that right, Mom?” But the child’s grandmother answered her daughter, “Not really. That’s just the way my mother always did it.”

So the child picked up the phone and called her great-grandmother and asked, “Why did you always cut a roast in half and put it into two little pans instead of just putting it into one big pan for cooking?” And the great-grandmother replied, “Because we were poor back then and couldn’t afford to buy a big pan. I always had to cut our roasts in half and put the halves into our two small pans because we didn’t own a large pot.” So one person did something out of necessity, but then two more persons senselessly modeled that same behavior out of ignorance. And it took an act of questioning to finally expose the senselessness of the behavior that had been passed down, unconsciously and unquestioningly, for generations.

But even after the child returned from the phone call and revealed to her mother and her grandmother the root of their now senseless behavior, for the rest of their lives they still continued to cut their roasts in half and to put the two parts into small pans for cooking. Eventually, that child became an adult, married, had children and cooked roasts. And in her kitchen one afternoon, as she was cutting a roast in half and preparing to cook the two pieces for their evening meal, her child asked her, “Why don’t you just put the roast in the big pan to cook it?”

And she answered, “Well, I remember asking that question myself one time, but now I don’t remember exactly what the answer was. But I know that your great-great grandmother did it this way, and your great-grandmother did it this way, and your grandmother did it this way, so I just do it that way too.” And the little child said, "OK," and when she became an adult, she did it that way, too.

The Advaita Teachings invite you to wake up and to stop doing things simply because you and your family and your friends and your culture and your “leaders” have always done things that way. The Advaita Teachings invite you to wake up and to stop believing in concepts simply because you and your family and your friends and your culture and your “leaders” have always believed in those concepts.

The Advaita Teachings invite you to question it all. The teachings offer a method by which you can be awakened, by which you can be enlightened, by which you can understand how you have been unconsciously driven by folklore that is thousands of years old, and how you can be free of all things that currently influence you and that unconsciously drive you. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)THE FEATURED ITEM FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS THE MEDITATION SET: Daily Meditation Guides, Volumes One and Two (15% off the price of the set through June 24th.)

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: The result of accepting ancient myths and superstitions as truth is that those legends and lies now control the thoughts and lives and words of people today, thousands of years after those fictional tales were dreamed up. Billions of persons have been programmed to believe lies. Then, they unconsciously allow those lies to determine what they do, what they say, how they feel, how they act, and how they react.

The result of that absence of truly being awake and aware of Who/What They Are is that persons are being driven by subconscious motives and unconscious influences without having the slight clue that such is the case. The result of that scenario is a planet populated with persons who behave as if they are destructive robots that (a) have been built with an ability to destroy things and people and places and relationships and that (b) have been programmed to do just that. John believes that he choose to write the e-mail above. In fact, he wrote from a state of unconsciousness and warped consciousness, driven by what he thinks are "his beliefs" but having no clue at all that he's merely repeating in his sleep some words he heard and that reinforce fictional tales that were dreamed up thousands of years ago.

It took Pavlov little time or effort to condition his dogs to behave unnaturally. People can be conditioned with as little time or effort as well. After attending only a few gatherings of religious groups or spiritual groups and hearing what persons there are saying and watching what persons there are doing, the newly-arrived are soon talking the same talk, soon praying the same prayers in unison, and soon repeating (as if an expert) the same phrases and expressions that they first heard only a few days before. Persons can be conditioned to behave in a zombie-like fashion and to unconsciously mimic other persons about them in very short order.

Some people talk in their sleep and don’t know what they’re saying; some people get drunk or high and say things they don’t even know they’re saying; others are functioning under the influence of their personality so that anything that they say is “personality-speak,” merely an ego-state talking away in an effort to support its false self. In all of those cases, the words and actions of persons are being controlled by factors that they are completely unaware of. And you, John—along with those who believe what you believe—are no different. As you pray “all day, every day,” you’re saying words and doing things that are rooted in myths and false beliefs that were, and are, pure fiction…dreamed up millennia ago and blindly repeated today.

Talk about not being present to the moment. Talk about being asleep but thinking you’re awake. Talk about believing myths and disseminating fabrications. Talk about spreading lies and hoodwinking the masses. Talk about believing that you’re making conscious choices when totally unconscious actions are really taking place. It’s one thing to take a drug and not know fifteen minutes later why you’re doing what you’re doing and why you’re saying what you’re saying. It’s something else entirely when you’re talking and behaving under the influence of something that is not fifteen minutes old but that is thousands of years old instead. GHB, Rohypnol and Ketamine are date-rape drugs; your ideas, concepts, and beliefs are brain-rape drugs.

So the considerations for today are: Are you beginning to see why you’re really saying what you’re saying? Are you beginning to see why you really believe what you believe? Are you beginning to see why you’re really doing what you’re doing? Do you not see that your entire life, “all day, every day” is based in heresay? If you think you have free will and are making choices but the fact is that you don’t even have a clue about why you’re believing what you believe and why you’re saying what you say and why you’re doing what you’re doing, how insane-like is that? Maharaj said:

"After the information given to you by the mother, that you are a boy or girl, all your further acquisitions are by hearsay."

How trapped are you in beliefs and ideas and concepts that are pure hearsay…pure nonsense…pure fiction? How out of touch with reality is that? Functioning from within a hypnotic state as a result of being programmed and conditioned, persons are totally asleep but are convinced that they are completely awake. While persons talk proudly about their lofty “minds” that “separate them from the animals,” they are actually living nothing more than a “monkey see—monkey do” existence. Living under the influence of ancient pagan beliefs and the additional concepts that modern cultures have added, the non-Realized have been intoxicated both emotionally and spiritually. They are high on an ancient drug that is a blend of unquestioning faith, superstitions, mythologies, legends, and an ego-based desire for power.

In CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS, seventeen factors that drive people unconsciously (and that end up destroying “relative-existence-relationships”) are catalogued and explained, including conditioning and programming; internalizing mates and/or parents; archetypes and genetics; the subconscious “mind”; ideas and concepts; reactions inspired by ego-state-generated emotions; beliefs; obsessions and compulsions; events from the past that impact the present; personality type; and all of the other factors listed and discussed in detail in the book.

Even as persons think they are making choices and decisions, they are really being driven blindly by factors that they are not even aware of, and many of those factors are rooted in ancient fictional tales that are now considered to be “holy teachings” that are considered “sacred” and thereby “beyond questioning.” How powerless is that? As with the Advaita Teachings, Casting Light not only identifies what drives persons blindly but also offers steps that can be used to be free of those subconscious motives and unconscious influences which control persons, factors which they are totally unaware of.

Until you identify what it is that is making you do what you do and think what you think, you will never stop behaving in an insane-like fashion and you will never be rid of the incessant chatter that is being generated by the fictional “mind” that resulted from the warping of the consciousness. Nor will you be able to live naturally; instead, you will be trapped in the effects of your programming and conditioning and will live in an unnatural, or supposedly supernatural, manner. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)THE FEATURED BOOK FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS (which identifies problems and their causes and offers suggestions for creating healthier relationships—relatively speaking. 15% off through today.)

Saturday, June 16, 2007

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: Since persons nowadays will readily believe the most bizarre rumors that circulate on a daily basis, it’s no wonder that they believe myths that have been repeated for millennia. Religions are nothing more than modernized versions of ancient myths and pagan religions. Prior to Abraham, pagans believed that there were many gods, each in charge of certain aspects of the relative existence: rain, crops, war, fertility, etc. Whereas all of the pagans’ multiple gods fell into one of three categories—creation gods, sustenance gods, and destruction gods—Abraham taught that only one god existed.

His one (male) god theory resulted in the masses combining all of their gods into one and claiming that “he” is a creator, a sustainer, and a destroyer…all three rolled into one. From those teachings evolved Judaism, John's Christian religion, and Islam. Today, 6 billion+ members of those three religions believe in a god with multiple personalities who will “create you and sustain you and love you but will also destroy you and make you suffer forever.” Today, just like that "god of their understanding," those who consider themselves to be the most godly (that is, the most like that god with his contradictory nature) will also love you if you accept their beliefs or will destroy you if you do not. They are modeling their god perfectly.

One excerpt from a novel based in the non-duality teachings (The Twice-Stolen Necklace Murders) shows how the ancient myths and ancient gods still overshadow reason, still dominate thinking, and still influence behavior, even today. The Christian mother of the lead character in that novel, a man named Kirk, demands that thanks be offered to God for their meal before they eat. Kirk knew the pagan origins of the words about to come from her lips even though she did not.

He knew that even the days of the week were named in honor of one of seven major gods. He also knew that on each day of the week, a prayer was offered to a particular god during ancient times:

1. On Sun’s-day, the ancients gave thanks to the sun for the gift of power and life;2. On Moon’s-day, they prayed to the Moon god—the dispeller of darkness—and gave thanks for protection during the night;3. On Tiw’s-day, the pagans prayed to Tiw, god of war, and gave thanks for personal strength and victory over enemies;4. On Woden’s-day, prayers were offered to the god of gods;5. On Thor’s-day, thanks were offered to the son of god who was in charge of war and thunder and personal strength (and their prayers pandered to Woden by saying, “in-Your-son’s-name-we-pray”);6. On Frigga’s-day, prayers were offered to Frigga, the goddess of fertility; and7. On Saturn’s-day, thanks were offered to Saturn, goddess of agriculture, for giving food.

And Kirk also knew that his mother’s prayer was going to roll all of those ancient pagan prayers into one, and it was recounted in the novel as she prayed:

Dear God from whom all power and life and blessings come, we thank You for watching over us during the night. As our troops prepare for battle overseas, please give them strength and victory over the evil forces. Please protect our boys and women and give them the strength needed. We ask Your blessing on my grandson and his wife, that they might become pregnant if it is in Your will. Now bless this food that You have given to us for the nourishment of our bodies. It is in your son's name we pray. Amen.”

So a woman who calls herself “a Christian” prays seven ancient, pagan prayers on three occasions throughout every day. A woman who thinks she is praying to her one Christian god is really calling on a pagan sun god, a moon god, a god of war, the son of a pagan god, a goddess of fertility, and a goddess of agriculture, just as you do “all day, every day,” John. She’s thinking she’s awake. She thinks that she knows why she’d doing what she’d doing. She thinks she knows why she’s saying what she’s saying.

But the truth is that she doesn’t have a clue about where her words and actions are really coming from. The ancient myths that were dreamed up by ignorant people and passed down by ignorant people and then blindly accepted by "unquestioning persons of faith" still control the thoughts and lives and words of modern people thousands of years later. Do you see why the Advaitins teach that "the cause of all is all"? To find motive, you must keep going back, for that is where persons "reside": not in the present, not in the now, but trapped in a web of ancient lies and learned ignorance from a fictional "past."

Thus, the considerations for today are, “Have you found what is motivating your every thought?” “Have you seen why you are saying what you say?” “Have you discovered why you believe what you believe?” "Do you really know why you are doing what you are doing?" "Have you seen that you are being driven by enculturation, conditioning, programming, personality, belief in lies, and fictitious legends?" "Are you also suffering some degree of religion-induced psychosis or schizophrenia, as discussed yesterday?" To come up with "a god of your own conception" is stil coming up with a self-generated concept. It is still nothing more than an idea that you've come up with, based in the learned ignorance to which you've been exposed.

If you have not Realized, you cannot understand at all why you think and feel and believe and behave as you do. Rather than having "power," you are truly powerless if your every thought and action is being unconsciously controlled by tales that were dreamed up by ignorant people who lived thousands of years ago. One who lives under the mentally and emotionally-intoxicating influence of ancient myths and superstitions and programming and personality might as well be staggering through life under the influence of drug or alcohol-induced intoxication. The end result is the exactly the same in either case. Please enter the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)THE FEATURED BOOK FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS (which identifies problems and their causes and offers suggestions for creating healthier relationships—relatively speaking. 15% off through June 17th.)

Friday, June 15, 2007

From a site visitor: [Received 10 June 2007] Today you said history shows religion leads to separation and judging and even killing. That’s not true. For me, my religion leads to peace and power. I stay in conscious contact with Him with prayer all day, every day, and He empowers me and gives me guidance and peace so I can be happy for as long as by His grace I am allowed to live. I hope you can find your way to Him so that you can have peace in this life and joy forever. Signed, John (as in 3:16)--A Child and Agent of God

F.: Yesterday, it was shown how your religion is based in duality and that your own prophet said, “A dual-minded person is unstable in all ways.” Thus, the words of your own prophet guarantee that—trapped in the duality of your dogma—you will be guaranteed to be "unstable in all ways." You cannot compartmentalize the instability that results from your dualistic thinking and only be unstable on Sundays, for example. Next, persons who are unstable develop personality disorders and mental illnesses. Your words reveal that at least two of those illnesses have manifested in your case.

In order to be restored to sanity, you might first inquire into the ways in which professionals, such as psychologists and psychiatrists, treat those like you who are engaging in “auditory locutions with a being or beings from another world.” In the book SPIRITUAL SOBRIETY: Recovering What Religions Lost, Dr. Jeffrey A. Schaler is quoted as he discusses “psychosis,” a condition in which persons fail to differentiate between the symbolic (abstract) and the real (concrete). He said:

People are labeled psychotic when they refer to mental representations as if they were substantive and real. One example [involves taking] the 'voice of conscience' as the literal voice of another being, known as 'hearing voices.' The failure to differentiate between the symbolic and the real may be intentional (artistic license) or strategic (lying) or the result of a cognitive inability to differentiate between fantasy and reality.

The third case is likely yours, John, since supernatural thinking and supernatural living are based in fantasy and in magical thinking rather than being in touch with reality and living naturally. Schaler also discusses another illness that can generate belief in illusions:

Schizophrenia is said to be characterized by hallucinations, i.e., self-reported imaginings. Belief in God is a socially acceptable, self-reported imagining. Another example of self-reported imaginings, i.e., hallucinations, is the popular belief in the existence of angels. This belief is considered normal by mentally “healthy” people. Belief in the existence of aliens is considered abnormal and is a sign of mental illness. Yet, insofar as angels and aliens are both hallucinations (that is, self-reported imaginings), there is no difference between believing in angels and believing in aliens. When self-reported imaginings conflict with socially accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered psychotic. When self-reported imaginings are consistent with socially accepted norms of belief, speech, and behavior, the claims are considered normal.

Thus, that which is abnormal is now considered normal among the deluded masses, and that is the obstacle that seekers face when trying to break free of the bondage of enculturation and the nonsense circulated as truth via their culture's programming and conditioning. For more, visit http://floydhenderson.com/spiritualsobriety.htm

More revealing, might the truth be that your beliefs, your concepts, and your ideas are not really “yours” at all? You unquestioningly believed "them" when they told you that there is an unseen being that knows if you are sleeping and knows if you're awake and knows if you've been good or bad and who will bring your presents. You believed that tale with unswerving faith, and even after they admitted that they had lied to you about Santa, you now have unquestioning faith in their next tale about another unseen being that watches over you and knows if you've been good or bad and gives you the gifts of power and guidance when you're good.

The ease with which persons can be programmed to believe the most outlandish tales would be humorous if it were not for the fact that the end result is all of the insane-like behavior and misery and suffering and killing that mars the relative existence because of the sleepwalkers who are walking about the planet while doing things in their sleep, talking in their sleep, and spreading their tales in their sleep.

Might you be able to find which persona, which assumed identity that has resulted from the corrupted consciousness, generated the e-mail above? Might you be able to find why you think those guiding voices in your head are being spoken by a being from another world? Might you be able to understand how it is that you came to believe what you believe and why the above illnesses have manifested?

If you find what you were before conception and where you were in the weeks prior to conception, you will find that “you” were not born at all. And if you find that you were not born, you might give up the notion that you are “born again” (even as those adhering to the teachings of other religions can give up the notion that they will be born again and again and again). You’ll also understand that, if you were not born, you cannot die, even as you understand that there will be no continuity for the body or “mind” or personality.

Since you are not in touch with reality, you will likely give no consideration to being in touch with reality. Like a six-year-old who has been told that he was lied to about Santa, you want to cling to your magical beliefs in the hope of continuing to get your "rewards" (such as "power" and "guidance," in your case.) Those who are more willing, however, can begin the “journey” to sanity, to being in touch with reality, to being able to differentiate the symbolic from the real, and to being able to distinguish reality from fantasy. That is what the Advaita Teachings can bring into being, after all. As far as your religiosity or holiness or spirituality, Maharaj dismissed all of that when he said:

"Whatever spiritual things you aspire to know are all happening in this objective world, in the illusion. All this is happening in the objective world. All is dishonesty. There is no truth in this fraud."

By the way, should you ever consider taking this “journey,” understand that it cannot begin by writing to this site to question the consciousness that speaks herein or by any acts of questioning “other” Advaitins or by seeking out people and trying to force your beliefs on them. The “journey” begins by questioning your self, by questioning what others taught you, by making an honest and impartial appraisal of all of your beliefs, your concepts, your ideas and your notions about who you are. And at the "journey's" end is freedom from all of "their" limiting beliefs and the ability to relax into the bliss of the nothingness...the bliss of zero concepts and zero false personas. Please enter into the silence of contemplation. (To be continued)THE FEATURED BOOK FOR THIS WEEK’S SALE IS CASTING LIGHT ON THE DARK SIDE OF RELATIONSHIPS (which identifies problems and their causes and offers suggestions for creating healthier relationships—relatively speaking). 15% off through June 17th.

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